The Fire of a Snake
by AngstFemme
Summary: THIS IS TOTALLY DISCONTINUED.Set after Book Six. Harry, Hermione, and Ron haven't returned to Hogwarts, as planned. Coincidentally, neither has Draco. And accidentally Ginny hasn't either. This is my first Ginny&Draco fic of my bored mind. please R
1. Chapter 1: Snape Again

(¯·..·ONE·..·´¯)

The night air was warm and slightly heavy, a shadowy sort of darkness surrounding the boy as he stood alone. His posture was slightly slumped in the way of a young dog banished to his leash outside; mussed, pale blonde hair hung around his face, which was slightly ashen and gaunt.

With a faint pop, a new figure Apparated into the growing dim of the evening, shaking their robes free of some invisible dust and breathing a little shallowly.

"Draco," the voice whispered harshly, without the questioning tone of one seeking another; the male voice was dark and commanding. "You're early…you shouldn't be. What if someone saw?"

The boy turned, flicking once-platinum hair from his silvery grey eyes. "What would it matter? No one saw me anyway…and besides I'm _not_ early. I was on time- you're late," Draco retorted, the last bit trailing off to a insolent mutter, his eyes sparking slightly as he looked up at the older man, hook nosed and pallid skinned, with long, greasy black hair.

"Don't," Severus Snape said softly, "take a tone with me, Draco." His eyes flashed in the dimming light, his fingers curling.

"What do you want, Snape?" Draco demanded, disregarding the wizard's order.

"_Professor_ Snape," he said silkily, his low voice lined with venom, ignoring the boy's tut that they certainly were no longer at Hogwarts. "I come to tell you that you need to return to your master. He-"

"Will kill me!" Draco exclaimed, drawing himself up, glaring at Snape, though a small slice of fear cut his widened eyes.

"No…you can't no that Draco. And what of your Mother? Do you realize-"

"I- don't," the Malfoy said sharply, cutting off his old Head of House from the Slytherin dungeons at Hogwarts. "Leave me!" He added harshly as Severus Snape deftly caught Draco by the arm, his painful grip pulling him closer. With an expression of slight pain and surprise, the boy turned slightly and slid out of the older wizard's grip, popping back into existence a few feet away.

"You've learned to Apparate, then? Have a license?"

"No," Draco said defiantly. "I practiced over and over- like with the Banishing Cabinets," he added, smirking. "Yes that's right- _I_ let the Death Eaters in, _I-_"

"Did not kill Dumbeldore," Snape sneered, playing his wand through his fingers. "But you did, however, get the Death Eaters in and _him_ cornered without a wand. So why do you fear returning to your master?"

"I don't fear it," Draco said sulkily. "Stop sending me owls, Snape. Stop following me! Leave me!" He yelled, turning again and Disapparating out of place with an audible noise, something between a pop and a squelch.

-&-

It pushed him from every direction, as if some invisible force was trying to compress him as tiny as he could go before shoving him through space to his next destination. Breathing hard, his chest aching slightly, Draco shook the growingly untamed hair from his eyes and looked around himself, checking the fact that there were no Muggles around to see him. _And if there had been?_ Ignoring himself, Draco moved forward in the dark, dingy alleyway and pulled his wand from his pocket, whispering "lumos" in the silent night, his wand tip igniting with yellow light, spreading to illuminate the cramped alley, a tall brick building bordering each side of it, trash littering the floor.

He was in a small London town, a Muggle town, with nothing but his wand and wizard's robe in the ugly alley. Extinguishing the light of his wand, Draco stuffed it back into his cloak pocket and stepped into the street, staring at the car that rumbled past. Familiar in the way that he'd seen them before, but still foreign in how it exactly worked, or it's point, either, Draco watched until the red tail-lights faded vaguely in the evening before walking further down the empty street, in a seemingly aimless wander.


	2. Chapter 2: Ally Diagan

(¯·..·TWO·..·´¯)

Ginny Weasley sighed.

She shook a few locks of dark red hair from her eyes and looked away from her book turning her gaze blankly out the window. She couldn't help but think about him…the scruffy mop of dark brown hair, the bright green eyes, shining with the determination to go on when all he had loved was brutally lost or else threatened.

Slowly, Ginny frowned, her eyes hardening with a defiant glimmer, shadowing the bitter sadness. She'd finally had him to hold her, and it was lost. She wouldn't let it…but she had to, didn't she? And she would…for now. Hopelessly, she watched a large tree in the front of her yard lift slightly with the wind, wondering vaguely if- no, when- Voldemort would be gone. Harry…

Hearing a ruckus downstairs, Ginny sat up with slight interest, listening.

"It's about time," her brother Ron said, sounding excited and pleased. "It's been ages- well, only about two weeks."

Hermione. Ginny rose, stretched luxuriously, and headed out of her room, stopping dead and nearly causing herself to trip and fall all the way down the stairs in surprise at the response. She listened silently to the other voice, a smile curling her lips quickly as she pressed herself against the wall.

"I know…I came for the wedding of course…Bill is recovering then? And also…" The other voice stopped, and Ginny took a few of the steps, listening intently.

"Ginny," she could practically hear Ron's eyes roll in his voice. "She's upstairs I guess…And Bill, well, as good as can be expected. But, there's something I've got to tell you mate-"

"Oh, hello Harry," Ginny said smoothly, having bound down the rest of the stairs before stopping abruptly to make a smooth, nonchalant entrance. Casually, she sat down at the kitchen table and selected a large, green apple, rubbing it absently on her Muggle jeans.

"Hey, Ginny." His voice sounded slightly strained, overly forced as he tried to speak in a normal, neutral tone.

Ron frowned slightly, whether it was a discomfort with the fake voice and tension between his sister and best friend, or if he was still slightly confused as to whether or not they were still together and how exactly he felt about it.

"Er, Hermione's due here any minute now, so I'll go and um, check the fireplace for a few minutes, since Dad managed to hook hers up to our for the day…," mumbling, Ron turned and left the room, leaving Ginny to stare down at her apple.

"Harry," she choked, and looked up to see him looking slightly startled and more than a little strained. Flinging herself from the chair, she wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her forehead in the familiar hollow above his collarbone, leaning in against his sturdy form. After a moment he allowed an arm to slip behind her shoulders, his other elbow hanging awkwardly near her shoulder as he smoothed the free hand against her hair.

Tangling her fingers in his hair, Ginny leaned back and looked up at him, her eyes swamped with a bitter sadness. "Get him, Harry," she said steadily. "Get him and be done with it, so no one has to worry anymore. So you can live Harry. So you can, can have a life."

"With you, then?" he asked, and she pulled away, shrugging.

"Whatever you need, whatever you want. You deserve it, Harry. There's no reason for all this to rest on you."

"I want-" but her stopped as Mrs. Weasley bustled in from the yard, smiling widely as she hugged him briefly, exclaiming as usual about this appearance.

"Oh and Harry, dear, you're just in time, the wedding's tomorrow, did you know?"

"Yeah, Ron-"

Ginny slipped away from the scene, feeling to emotional and confused to remain with her ignorant mother, pestering Harry about such trivial things as a wedding. The wedding of her semi-werewolf brother and his semi-veela love. Would that end their pureblood line? Did she care? What did blood matter anyway...Voldemort seemed so intent on Harry's, as well as on everyone's being pure and only pure when his own was so tainted by a handsome Muggle that Harry had told her all about...

Voldemort- dare she even think the name? She did, on those quiet, sleepless nights of lying upon her bed in a living death, aching for a life unhindered by Dark wizards and tantalizing love. At least now she knew it wasn't an unrequited love she had for Harry...But what was worse, loving him without possibly knowing he wanted her as well, or knowing he yearned for her as she did him, but a single concept of a curse-happy fool ruining it all? But then again...if He...if Voldemort hadn't given Harry that scar, if Ron hadn't sat with him on that first train ride to Hogwart's, and began a friendship that extended away from school- would she have met Harry, a year above her, a normal teenage wizard?

Feeling all too dramatic and deep, Ginny wandered into her living room, stopping abruptly and laughing out loud at the scene. Hermione quickly pulled away from Ron, her face blazing with red embarrassment, while Ron looked slightly embarrassed, though more pleased than anything.

"Ginny, you git," he said foully, though he grinned.

"Ron, _no_," Hermione said, berating him. "Ginny, hi," she said happily, smiling. "How's your summer so far?"

"Oh, good," she lied, smiling as well.

"Harry!" Hermione squealed suddenly, causing Ginny to turn on her heals. "Seeing all three of you at once, it's great. How- how are you, then?" Hermione asked, looking anxiously between Harry and Ginny, who busied herself with a loose thread on her shirt hem.

"Well, you know. The Dursley's were as usual, and when I left and told them I shouldn't be back, as I'm an adult now- well," Harry grinned, seemingly unconcerned.

"_Well_ what?" asked Ron, "What happened?"

"Nothing really. Uncle Vernon was pleased, of course. He bickered about the mess I was leaving behind, I'm filthy ingrate of a wizard and all that, but you know, I've never seen him so puffed up... Except maybe when he thought he'd won that best kept lawn thing…"

Hermione and Ron laughed with him, as Ginny smiled wistfully, not knowing what on earth they were talking about.

"And well, I couldn't resist," Harry continued, "setting some Bat Bogies in Dudley's room. I didn't know how they'd get rid of them, and I didn't care," he plowed on, ignoring Hermione's tuts of disapproval. "But my uncle saw them, he went bloody purple, and I ended up vanishing them."

Ron looked disappointed.

"Hermione, tea?" Ginny asked brightly, her smile too wide.

-&-&-&-

-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-

-&-&-&-

"Harry, Ron! Hermione! Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley hollered up the stairs, urging them towards the fireplace as they came down the stairs. "Come on, come on," she said, taking the pot of Floo Powder and shoving it at Harry. "Take a pinch dear, it's still early, we may get most of the shopping down before it gets crowded. Do you all have your lists? Oh I'm so pleased Hogwarts is reopening, I'm sure Professor McGonagall will do finely as a headmistress, though I want you all to wish her luck from me…Harry, take a pinch, won't you?"

Harry looked uneasily at Ron, Hermione exchanged a glance with Ginny, and then the three of them looked at Harry. Mrs. Weasley looked irate. "What, forgot your lists upstairs? Hurry up," she ordered. None of them moved.

"Er, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said slowly. "I'm not going back to Hogwarts." She looked unpleasantly shocked.

"Not going back?" she whispered questioningly. Harry shook his head. "What on earth are you talking about, of course you are! You've got to finish school, so you can go into being an Auror, and get well, You-Know-Who. You've got to finish your education this isn't even funny. Take a pinch, won't you!"

"I can't, Mrs. Weasley. "I- I've got things to do. I need to go to Godric's Hollow…I've got to find the H- got to find Voldemort, and get rid of him."

"That can wait," she said despairingly.

"No, it can't…"

"I'm going with Harry as well, Mrs. Weasley…" said Hermione slowly.

"Me... me too," Ron added nervously, taking a step back from his mother, who was looking hysterical.

"Oh no you are not, Ronald! I know I can't order Harry and Hermione to go to school though I wish I could, but you-"

"No, Mum! I'm- I'm of age now, I'm an adult and I can do what I want."

"Just like Percy!" his mother hollered hysterically, eyes bright with unshed tears.

"No! Percy's a prat, Mum! I think helping Harry to, to I dunno, save the world- I think it's a bit better than going away to that corrupt thing of a Ministry and getting puffed up by a git of a man calling me Weatherby." Molly Weasley turned away from her youngest son.

"Come, Ginny, time to get your things."

"I'm going with them, Mom." This caused yet another argument, but Mrs. Weasley flared up and won this time, with the actual help of Ron, Harry, and of course, Hermione. It's not safe, they told her, though she didn't care. She wasn't of age yet- at least finish her Sixth Year like they had, like even her twin brothers had.

"Fine," Ginny snapped, her eyes bright. Taking a small handful of Floo Powder she tossed it in the empty hearth, stepping into the sudden blaze of emerald green flames. "Diagon Alley!" she choked, and began to spin, disappearing.

"I'll be back," Mrs. Weasley said darkly, following her only daughter.

-&-&-&-

-&-&-&-&-&-&-&

-&-&-&-

Coughing, Ginny stepped out of the fireplace and shook soot from her robes into the empty hearth. She looked up and saw that she wasn't in Diagon Alley, but rather in the living room of someone's house. Tentatively, she stepped forward, looking around. The mantle of the fireplace held a jar of familiar Floo Powder, there was a cage, it's door wide open, on a large desk with a young, tawny owl inside it, and a few scrolls of parchment and a quill next to them, as well as a jar with a magical light charmed inside of it, casting a glow around the room.

After a moment, Ginny moved to the desk and picked up one of the scrolls, unrolling it and reading.

_Ally,_

_I can't believe that of all places, you'd decide to move into a purely Muggle town. Do you realize that you don't live near any other witches or wizards? But that's you, always taking a side of things most of us wouldn't. In fact, I bet you're delighted to be surrounded by so many Muggles._

_I do suppose at least now you'll keep ready a nice jar of Floo Powder for traveling, since you can't use your beloved broom around so many non-magical people. Or maybe you'll actually get used to Apparating? It's so much easier, hon._

_I'll send this with Avie now, Gary is supposed to be here any moment to pick me up. We're going out to eat at that new place in Hogsmeade, the Muggle Cauldron._

_Since we've graduated now, I won't be seeing you again next week on the first! So we'll have to arrange sometime to get together._

_Love,_

_Mariah_

Interested, Ginny re-rolled the parchment and placed it back as it had been, leaning over to read the bit of fresh parchment with the quill laying across it.

_Mar,_

_Yes, I know there's no one magical out here! But I think this town suits me for now, I rather have a feeling- and no, don't go getting on me about how Divination is a silly subject! If I recall, you are the one that encouraged me to sign up for it, back in our Third Year._

_Not my fault dear Trelawney deemed you giftless of the third eye. Haha, that was a laugh._

_Your Avie is too tired to take my letter right now, and my darling Haren isn't here, he's out somewhere. So I'll just finish this when I get back from Gringotts and send it when he gets back…_

Going cold, Ginny realized that this witch Ally could Apparate or return by Floo Powder any moment now. And find an underage girl reading her letters? Quickly, Ginny raced from the living room, looked around frantically, and made her way down the hall and through a door- to the outside.

Night was falling, the sky growing hazy with early evening. Gathering her cloak closer about her, Ginny looked back at the witch's door.

_**Diagan, Ally**_

_**14**_

Grimacing, Ginny remembered her cry of 'Diagon Alley' and realized she'd choked on 'diagon' and said 'diagan', ending up at this Ally Diagan's house. Not the least amused, Ginny contemplated running back into the witch's living room and using her Floo Powder, but looking at the window, she saw it suddenly flash green, and knew the witch had timely returned through her fireplace.

Miserable, but feeling rather adventurous, Ginny hopped off the porch and slipped into the street, shedding her witches cloak to look more normal in her Muggle clothing. Shivering slightly, she snuck into a side alley and ran down it, all other anxious thoughts leaving her as she whooped at temporary freedom.

Breathing hard, she stopped running as she came to the other end of the alley and emerged into a new street. Looking around she spotted a sign proclaiming "Old Orchard Rd" and looking the other way, she gasped. Quickly melding into the shadows, Ginny's eyes widened- anxious, surprised, and interested in the appearance, farther down the street, of the familiarly blonde haired boy.


	3. Chapter 3: A Breakfast Illusion

**(¯·..·THREE·..·´¯)**

What was he doing here? Ginny wondered, looking behind her and then creeping a bit farther ahead, pushing herself against the wall of an old brick building, trying to meld into the sparse shadows in case he turned around.

His hair was longer than it usually was, and not as well kept, either. His stance was tense as he walked, such an unfamiliar gate to the confident strut his had once so arrogantly displayed in the school corridors at Hogwarts.

She wondered what else was different about him, because there was something…Ginny tilted her head slightly, pondering if the only other difference in him was that she knew what now must Mark his left arm. She wondered how it felt, to have it burned on her skin, branded with a symbol of loyalty to a murderer. Shaking her head, Ginny snuck forward quietly, trying to invoke some sort of quiet, huntress instinct to silence her footsteps and camouflage her body into the shadows and brick.

Without any thought as to why she was following him, Ginny crept closer to the Slytherin boy, pausing as he slowed his pace. Ginny stopped abruptly as he turned down a corner, feeling slightly panicked.

_I have no way to get home!_

You'll find one.

_Mom will be so worried about me…_

She always is.

Casting a glance around, Ginny slipped around the corner and darted through the steadily falling shadows until she caught up with him. Breathing sharply, she pushed herself against the wall again, not quite sure what she was doing. Suddenly, in mid-stride, Draco Malfoy turned around on his heels, cloak billowing in a way that challenged Snape's, his arm thrust forward, wand pointed distinctly at Ginny.

Surprised, Ginny backed into a building wall behind her and stood still, her eyes darting from the sleek wand to his dark grey eyes, cold and unyielding.

"Weasley," he sneered at her. "_Would _be going into your Sixth Year now wouldn't you? Unquestioningly a Gryffindor- well, as they say, curiosity does kill the cat," he said, eyes sparking with malice as his wand hand rose higher, the tip directed at Ginny's heart. "Scared, Weasley?"

"No," she said defiantly, straightening up and taking a step away from the wall. "If you couldn't kill Dumbeldore, then-"

"Dumbledore was a much better wizard than you," Draco spat, the sneer vanishing from his face.

"And all the better a prize, wandless and cornered by a true coward," Ginny responded coolly, raising an eyebrow at the Slytherin.

"You don't know anything," he began coldy, but was again interrupted by the young redhead.

"Oh you know what I know that _you_ didn't? Harry Potter was there. Professor Dumbledore could have saved himself when you cast Expelliarmus, but instead, he sent a Freezing Charm at Harry, who had been with him under an invisibility cloak, and sacrificed the chance to bring you down with the bat of an eye. It would have been _so easy_ for him-"

"Why?" Draco asked, his face contorted into a mask of unidentifiable emotions.

"If you haven't noticed, Dumbledore was a very powerful, g-"

"Not him," Draco spat, eyeing her. "Why did he Freeze Potter? Why not have let him run into the castle to bring his precious staff running and save everything?"

"I- I don't know," Ginny stammered, the thought truthfully never having crossed her mind. "Maybe he just-"

"Wanted to die?" Draco turned his eyes away from her, looking thoughtful and confused, seeming to have forgotten Ginny existed. Taking her chance, she took a few steps back, eyeing him, ready to sprint away. "Oh no," Draco said, twitching his wand and sending a nonverbal charm that glued her feet to the dingy street ground.

"Let me go," she hollered, fishing her wand out of her pocket.

"Why are you following me?" Draco asked, arrogantly deflecting her Hex.

"I don't know."

"Why are you even here?"

"I don't _know_," she hollered. "I was using the Floo Network and didn't say it clearly enough!" Seeming to buy her story, or at least the part of how she had gotten to the same place as he, Draco lowered his wand and was silent for a moment.

"Well, you can't go back," he said, sounding thoughtful.

"What do you mean? You can't-"

"I can and I will," he snapped shortly, thrusting his wand up again. "No one can know where I am, or else…" he stopped talking abruptly, eyeing her for a moment; she watched his face mask, his eyes close off before Ginny even had realized they'd opened to read them. He stalked forward, grabbing her arm and closing his eyes. "It must be like normal apparition…just er, think of the Malfoy Manor."

"No! I've never seen it before, and I'm _not-_"

"I don't think seeing it really matters all that much, just, think of it," he commanded roughly, gripping her arm tighter and twisting slightly, pulling her into space. Ginny tried to yell but no noise could escape her lungs, which were being pressured into an almost nonexistence, all the rest of her being compressed as well, squishing her through the darkness.

Ginny opened her eyes, realizing she'd squeezed them shut in her discomfort. Looking around, she saw that Draco had dropped her arm and walked away a bit, twitching his robes into order.

"Elyn!" He called sharply, turning in a circle.

"Yes sir, Master Draco?" came a voice, small and squeaky. Startled, Ginny looked around the large, stone entrance room, settling her eyes on a small House Elf, popping with a crack into the room.

"Is Mother in?"

"No, Master Draco, the Mistress is out on her travels again, she is leaving you this letter, she is telling Elyn that she is in France with her mother for a while. She is telling me that I must make sure you is safe."

"Yes, yes, that's enough," Malfoy said monotonously, scanning the parchment before crumpling it into his pocket. "Weasley-".

"Let me out of here, Malfoy. If you'd be so kind to show me the door, and tell me where exactly I am, though I don't expect you'd-"

"You're right, I won't. You're staying here, so-"

"Oh no I am not," Ginny interrupted, glaring hatefully at him. "Why would you-"

"Because," he yelled at her, "You know that I'm home, you know where I was tonight, and you might know who I was with too, and what was being said, and-"

"No, no, no. I saw you, that's all, I don't know anything else, and why does it matter anyway?"

"I've no reason to believe you. And why do you _think_ it matters?" he asked her angrily, his left arm compulsively twitching, his face, as before, going blank before she even had a chance to realize that it was readable.

"Oh…" Ginny murmured, and at an uncharacteristic loss of words, she looked down at her feet. Something hard grabbed her, wrapping around her forearm mercilessly. Automatically she jerked away, instincts to fight and flee flooding her veins, but the grip held.

Roughly, Draco Malfoy tugged Ginny in front of him and pushed her forwards, guiding her none too kindly down a hall. Stunned and surprisingly exhausted, Ginny simply watched him push in a door; then opening her mouth to say something, she ended up yelling in angry blurt of shock as he shoved her in and closed the door sharply.

"Elyn!" He hollered again, footsteps fading away.

"Let me out!" she yelled, furiously kicking the door and then wincing. Quieting instantly, Ginny pulled her wand from a cloak pocket at tentatively tapped it against the door handle. "Alohomora," she whispered. There was a click so silent she might have imagined it…With a joyous grin, Ginny turned the handle and tugged, but rather than open, the solid piece of wood glowed a greenish blue and threw her backwards, sending her into a heap on the stone floor.

She recognized that from somewhere…from a night not too long ago, fighting Death Eaters in Hogwarts School, them running through the portal effortlessly, the same thing that forcefully repelled those without the Mark… Hopeless, Ginny stood up and rubbed an aching elbow, taking in the room.

It was slightly small, all stone and practically barren, but for a tapestry depicting a snake, long and deadly, half coiled with it's head raised high, venomous fangs sinking into a bright red bird, dark blood shown spilling from it's wound. Disgusted, Ginny turned from it and the small, glossy wood tale beneath it. There was nothing else in the room.

Ginny turned back, ignored the tapestry, and went to the desk. Nothing was on it, nothing was in the drawers. Screaming in frustration, Ginny returned her attentions uselessly to the door, sending various spells, hexes, and charms at it. Growing weary, she looked around for any sense of time, wondering how long she'd sat before the bewitched door.

-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-

Slowly, she opened her eyes. The room was as mysteriously well lit as it had been before, when she'd first been put in it. How long had it been? She easily remembered the day she'd been taken captive into the infuriatingly plain room, sending all manners of useless magic at the door, which refused to let her out.

Looking dejected, Ginny sat up, rubbed her eyes, and looked to the door. There it was- a small white plate, with two slices of buttered bread, two well-looking sausages, and a small goblet of water. _So, it's morning again?_ She thought vaguely, taking her hair clip from her witches' robes and scratching another line on the desk's surface, surveying her work. Four lines, four mornings. She hadn't started marking her breakfast's right away, so all she knew was that it had been slightly longer than four days. Stuck in this godforsaken room.

What did her mother think? And the rest of her family? Harry? Did they look for her? Had they been, for whatever reasons, searching for her here, in this Manor, while she sat to rot on bread and scarce meats? Miserably, Ginny picked at the sausage and slowly ate the bread, knocking over her goblet of water with defiant sort of disdain, watching it run along the cracks between each part of the stone floor.

There was a creaking noise and Ginny turned, staying cross-legged on the floor, watching the hated door open and expose Draco Malfoy and a glimpse of hallway behind him. She glared uselessly at him, examining him closely behind her venomous look. He didn't look any different than the night she'd happened across him in the Muggle town, except that he was slightly more pale and withdrawn.

He still managed a sneer.

"You're going to get sick with dehydration, that's the second meal you've not drunk your water," he observed, eyeing the spilled drink and then flicking his gaze over her and to the desk. "And I did wish you'd stop scratching up the table, I was rather fond of it….No matter, it's less important than my life and success to this mission…" His face hardened as he looked at her, still glaring at him, though the look was fading.

"How do you know?" she asked him, disregarding the fact that she could only vaguely recall tipping her water yesterday. It was all so dull…

"I can watch you if I like…but anyway, I need you now, it's useless to keep you in here," he announced, watching her expression as it changed from being blank to looking bewildered.

"Excuse me?" she asked haughtily, watching him. He leaned down and grabbed her hand, jerking her to her feet before releasing her.

"I said: move," he answered coldly. "And don't try to run from the Manor, all the doors and windows out are sealed much more efficiently than this pathetic thing," he added, gesturing to the door that had kept her locked securely inside the room.

Ignoring the insult, Ginny stood, feeling disgustingly weak. Slowly, she moved into the hall, watching him close the door behind them and set off, away from the entrance he'd apparated her into days ago. Without thinking, only feeling tired and curious, Ginny followed him and entered into a much larger room, long and high ceilinged, with a table set in its center. It was set for a full dinner, and Ginny sat as Draco ordered, looking questioningly at him.

"It won't help me if you die," he said shortly, but when she rolled her eyes and gestured the food, he laughed maliciously. "Oh yes, I've been giving you the inappropriate meals…breakfast at night, lunch at dawn…it's amusing, to have you thinking you know the time of day and how long you'd been there according to the amount of breakfasts, which I didn't give you enough of… You've really been here for a week….Now eat," he ordered, picking up his elegant, silver fork. "I need you alive…you mine-as-well be so on good food."

Ginny picked up her fork, a long and sleek bit of slender metal, the prongs pointed sharply. For a moment she sat there, turning the metal through her fingers, watching him. Then, slowly, she stabbed the prongs of the utensil through a lump of creamy mashed potatoes, lifted it to her mouth, and ate it without thinking or tasting; she looked blank, though her eyes glimmered with thought.

It seemed to take so long for the meal to end, and when a small group of House Elves whisked away the plates, Ginny stared at Draco. He sat back with a goblet of what looked like red wine, settling comfortably and arching a delicate brow at her as he sipped.

"I'm not quite sure what to do with you. So since all exits are efficiently sealed, I suppose I'll allow you roam of the Manor. Since you're not going anywhere, not anytime soon, at least."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked slowly, leaning forward and propping her elbows on the table. "I refuse to accommodate whatever plans you might have, Malfoy, so don't expect whatever this is to be easy," she said coolly, looking serenely at him.

"I don't expect it so," he said, watching her. "Though I suppose I'll make do," he added slowly, watching her. Ginny matched his gaze, her eyes unwilling sliding away from the twin pools of grey silver that were his own, falling to his hair. It looked like he'd groomed himself, cut his hair properly. It looked nice without all the gel slicking it back, falling around his face gently, a few strands invading his eyes. What was she thinking?

Draco watched her gaze slide to his hair and fall slowly back to his eyes, cold and amused. "Yes, Weasley, I'm rather aware of how hott I am, I get it enough from Parkinson… Would you mind stopping the fawning over me?"

With a sneer, Ginny stood roughly from her seat, shaking back her hair.

"You're pathetic," she said evenly, turning on her heal and stalking from the room, unsure of where she was going and deciding to explore the passages.

Draco smiled at getting to her and set down his drink, rising from his chair and stretching, watching her dark red hair glow almost in the lighting, the slightly curled ends bouncing on her back as she flounced from the room.

-a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-I-j-k-l-m-n-o-p-q-r-s-t-u-v-w-x-y-z-

A/N: at last, there is a glimmer of them noticing the physical things of each other! Next chapter I'll work in a bit of physical attraction and hopefully some mental as well. Since there is an actual plot I have in my head, I hope you'll forgive the slowness of them coming together! Please review, I'm sure it'll motivate me…hope to update soon )


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